Everything of the pandemic is difficult and the legislation is outdated. Restrictive measures may have imposed teleworking and distance learning, with technology providing solutions to many everyday issues, however, as it turns out, the legislation has not yet been fully modernized to meet the new data. Somewhere here stuck the issue of electronic registration in the electoral rolls for young voters, who could from the personal computer at home, to cope with all the bureaucratic procedures required.
Not that the registration process is very complicated, however in times when the interest of young people is at its nadir and the pandemic adds other obstacles, online registration would be a solution to the problem. This was also the reason why the Election Service was oriented towards this implementation.
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However, everything was blocked in the legislation, as submitting an application for registration on the electoral rolls requires the signature and identity of the person submitting the application. This is something that the current legislation does not allow to be done electronically, as reported by the Election Service. As far as the Ariadne system is concerned, when it was examined whether it could be done in a similar way using the data that were already registered, it was found that they concern a very small number.
Apart from that, however, there was also the issue of personal data in relation to the sending of telephone messages. The intention of the Election Service was to send text messages to young people aged 18-25 who are not registered to vote with whom it would invite them to register so that they can vote. The messages would also contain the relevant link that they would click on and would refer them to the website to complete the relevant application electronically. However, as the Election Service was informed, due to the fact that the telephone data had not been provided to the Service for this purpose, they could not be used because there was an issue of violation of personal data.
In these circumstances and due to the fact that the remaining time leaves no room for amendment of the legislation, the Election Service decided to proceed in the traditional way. That is, by sending letters by mail. In total, as we are informed, 34 thousand letters will be sent to young people aged 18-25, who will be asked to complete the application, sign it and deliver it to the provincial offices, or to the KEP-KEPO for registration in the lists, which It is recalled that they close on April 2. It is clarified that these 34 thousand refer to the cases for which there are registered contact details. The total number of unregistered is about 55 thousand people. As for people over the age of 25, in order to be able to register on the electoral roll, they will have to go through a personal interview at the local provincial offices and prove that the Republic of Cyprus is their place of permanent residence for the last six months.
It should also be noted that the issue of automatic registration in the electoral rolls is open. Something that was discussed extensively before the European elections in the competent parliamentary committee of the Interior, with the parties, but also the Election Service being positive towards this possibility.
In practice, however, this can not be done at this stage and the reason as mentioned then during the discussions, is that the Population Archive is not properly updated, nor are there any updated data, with the result that there can be no automatic registration, nor Many unregistered voters are identified.
3,114 the 18-year-olds
According to the statistics from the Election Service, the voters who have the right to vote for the first time, ie who reach the age of 18 by the 30th of May, the day of the elections, amount to 3,114 people. Regarding the current quarter, 1,375 people have registered from January 4 until yesterday, while until January 2, the last registration date of the previous quarter, 2,314 people, respectively in the last quarter of 2016, ie from January 2 to April 2, 12,144 had registered people while in 2011 the new voters were 19,111.
